1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fully enclosed wrap-around carton for bottles and cans. It has a pair of triangular panels between the end of the lower side panel and each lower end flap that diverge away from the bottom panel. Similarly, there are a pair of triangular panels between the sloping upper side panel and each upper end flap that diverge away from the top panel. These triangular panels serve to tighten the carton against the bottles or cans packaged therein.
2. Background of the invention
U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,487 to Wood discloses a tubular carton, in which the lower part of each end is closed. A fold line is provided between each lower end panel and the side wall. A crease line is provided that extends divergently upward from the lower corner of each side wall and each end panel. Thus, the corner between the lower side panel and lower end panel is formed with a triangular panel, which is intermediate to the plane of the lower side wall and the lower end wall panel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,598 to Stout et al. discloses a fully enclosed carton that is similar to the Wood carton except it also has triangular panels between the upper side wall and the upper end wall that diverges outwardly from the top panel to the lower side wall. This structure serves to keep the bottles taut in the carton. A carton with a similar set of triangular panels is disclosed in published European Patent Application No. 0 044 169.
It has been difficult to tighten fully enclosed wrap-around cartons around cans or bottles that are cylindrical in form because of the square corners of the carton. It would be desirable if a method could be found to tighten these cartons about the cans or bottles contained.